Principal Investigator(s):Cohen, Jacqueline, Carnegie Mellon University, H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management; Gorr, Wilpen, Carnegie Mellon University, H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management

Summary:

This study examined spatial and temporal features of crime
guns in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in order to ascertain how gun
availability affected criminal behavior among youth, whether the
effects differed between young adults and juveniles, and whether that
relationship changed over time. Rather than investigating the general
prevalence of guns, this study focused only on those firearms used in
the commission of crimes. Crime guns were defined specifically as
those used in murders, assaults, robberies, weapons offenses, and drug
offense... (more info)

This study examined spatial and temporal features of crime
guns in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in order to ascertain how gun
availability affected criminal behavior among youth, whether the
effects differed between young adults and juveniles, and whether that
relationship changed over time. Rather than investigating the general
prevalence of guns, this study focused only on those firearms used in
the commission of crimes. Crime guns were defined specifically as
those used in murders, assaults, robberies, weapons offenses, and drug
offenses. The emphasis of the project was on the attributes of crime
guns and those who possess them, the geographic sources of those guns,
the distribution of crime guns over neighborhoods in a city, and the
relationship between the prevalence of crime guns and the incidence of
homicide. Data for Part 1, Traced Guns Data, came from the City of
Pittsburgh Bureau of Police. Gun trace data provided a detailed view
of crime guns recovered by police during a two-year period, from 1995
to 1997. These data identified the original source of each crime gun
(first sale to a non-FFL, i.e., a person not holding a Federal
Firearms License) as well as attributes of the gun and the person
possessing the gun at the time of the precipitating crime, and the
ZIP-code location where the gun was recovered. For Part 2, Crime
Laboratory Data, data were gathered from the local county crime
laboratory on guns submitted by Pittsburgh police for forensic
testing. These data were from 1993 to 1998 and provided a longer time
series for examining changes in crime guns over time than the data in
Part 1. In Parts 3 and 4, Stolen Guns by ZIP-Code Data and Stolen Guns
by Census Tract Data, data on stolen guns came from the local
police. These data included the attributes of the guns and residential
neighborhoods of owners. Part 3 contains data from 1987 to 1996
organized by ZIP code, whereas Part 4 contains data from 1993 to 1996
organized by census tract. Part 5, Shots Fired Data, contains the
final indicator of crime gun prevalence for this study, which was 911
calls of incidents involving shots fired. These data provided vital
information on both the geographic location and timing of these
incidents. Shots-fired incidents not only captured varying levels of
access to crime guns, but also variations in the willingness to
actually use crime guns in a criminal manner. Part 6, Homicide Data,
contains homicide data for the city of Pittsburgh from 1990 to
1995. These data were used to examine the relationship between varying
levels of crime gun prevalence and levels of homicide, especially
youth homicide, in the same city. Part 7, Pilot Mapping Application,
is a pilot application illustrating the potential uses of mapping
tools in police investigations of crime guns traced back to original
point of sale. NTC. It consists of two ArcView 3.1 project files and
90 supporting data and mapping files. Variables in Part 1 include date
of manufacture and sale of the crime gun, weapon type, gun model,
caliber, firing mechanism, dealer location (ZIP code and state),
recovery date and location (ZIP code and state), age and state of
residence of purchaser and possessor, and possessor role. Part 2 also
contains gun type and model, as well as gun make, precipitating
offense, police zone submitting the gun, and year the gun was
submitted to the crime lab. Variables in Parts 3 and 4 include month
and year the gun was stolen, gun type, make, and caliber, and owner
residence. Residence locations are limited to owner ZIP code in Part
3, and 1990 Census tract number and neighborhood name in Part 4. Part
5 contains the date, time, census tract and police zone of 911 calls
relating to shots fired. Part 6 contains the date and census tract of
the homicide incident, drug involvement, gang involvement, weapon, and
victim and offender ages. Data in Part 7 include state, county, and
ZIP code of traced guns, population figures, and counts of crime guns
recovered at various geographic locations (states, counties, and ZIP
codes) where the traced guns first originated in sales by an FFL to a
non-FFL individual. Data for individual guns are not provided in Part
7.

Access Notes

The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public.
Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.

Universe:
Parts 1-5 and 7: Guns used in the commission of crime in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, between 1987 and 1998. Part 6: Homicide
victims in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, between 1990 and 1995.

Data Types:
administrative records data (Parts 1-6)

Data Collection Notes:

(1) Part 7 is a PKZip archive that illustrates how
select data from this project can be used with mapping software.
The 92 files, including two project files, were created with ArcView
3.1. Users should extract this zipped archive into a directory
called "C:\batf." Once the archive has been extracted onto the local
drive, users should open the ArcView project file called batf-pgh-nij.apr
to view the sample files. Additional information about this application
can be found in the appendix to the codebook. (2) The user guide and
codebook are provided by ICPSR as Portable Document Format (PDF)
files. The PDF file format was developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated
and can be accessed using PDF reader software, such as the Adobe
Acrobat Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy of the Acrobat
Reader is provided on the ICPSR Web site.

Methodology

Study Purpose:
This study examined spatial and temporal features
of crime guns in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in order to see how gun
availability actually affected criminal behavior among youth, whether
the effects differed between young adults and juveniles, and whether
that relationship changed over time. Rather than investigating the
general prevalence of guns, this study focused only on those firearms
used in the commission of crimes. Crime guns were defined
specifically as those used in murders, assaults, robberies, weapons
offenses, and drug offenses. Guns that came into temporary police
custody for health and safety reasons were not included in this
study. The researchers focused on just one city in order to explore
the gun-crime connection in rich detail, including variations across
neighborhoods within a city. The emphasis of the project was on the
attributes of crime guns and those who possess them, the geographic
sources of those guns, the distribution of crime guns over
neighborhoods in a city, and the relationship between the prevalence
of crime guns and the incidence of homicide.

Study Design:
Data for Part 1 came from the City of Pittsburgh
Bureau of Police. The Pittsburgh police have traced all guns
recovered by police through the Pennsylvania State Police and the NTC
since the formation of a local firearm tracking unit in early
1994. The gun trace data originating from the Pittsburgh police
provided a detailed view of crime guns recovered by police during a
two-year period, from 1995 to 1997. These data identified the original
source of each crime gun, as well as attributes of the gun and the
person possessing the gun at the time of the precipitating crime, and
the geographic location where the gun was recovered. For Part 2, data
were gathered from the local county crime laboratory on guns submitted
by the Pittsburgh police for forensic testing. These data were from
1993 to 1998 and provided a longer time series for examining changes
in crime guns over time than the data in Part 1. Unlike the trace
data, these data do not include any information about the source of
the gun or attributes of the person who possessed the gun. More
importantly, the two sources provided information on different aspects
of guns. Data on the geographic locations where crime guns were
recovered and their sources were available only for traced guns. The
crime lab data, by contrast, were available for a longer time period
(five years) than trace data (two years). The extent to which the two
sources agreed with one another on the information that they shared
provided some assurance about the validity of inferences derived from
just a single source when the data did not overlap. In Parts 3 and 4,
data on stolen guns came from the local police. These data included
the attributes of the gun and residential neighborhoods of
owners. Part 3 contains data from 1987 to 1996 organized by ZIP code,
whereas Part 4 contains data from 1993 to 1996 organized by census
tract. Part 5 contains the final indicator of crime gun prevalence for
this study, which was 911 calls of incidents involving shots
fired. These data provided vital information on both the geographic
location and timing of these incidents. Shots-fired incidents not only
captured varying levels of access to crime guns, but also variations
in the willingness to actually use crime guns in a criminal
manner. Part 6 contains homicide data for the city of Pittsburgh from
1990 to 1995. These data were used to examine the relationship between
varying levels of crime gun prevalence and the risk of homicide,
especially youth homicide, in the same city. It was expected that
homicides involving youthful participants, especially youthful gang
members, would be especially sensitive to changes in the prevalence of
crime guns. Part 7 is a pilot application illustrating the potential
uses of mapping tools in police investigations of crime guns traced
back to original points of sale. It consists of two ArcView 3.1
project files and 90 supporting data and mapping files.

Data Source:

Parts 1 and 7: United States Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, and Firearms. National Tracing Center. Part 2: County crime
laboratory. Parts 3-6: Pittsburgh Bureau of Police

Description of Variables:
Variables in Part 1 include date of manufacture and
sale of the crime gun, weapon type, gun model, caliber, firing
mechanism, dealer ZIP-code location, recovery date and ZIP-code
location, age and state of residence of purchaser and possessor, and
possessor role. Part 2 also contains gun type and model, as well as
gun make, precipitating offense, police zone submitting the gun, and
year the gun was submitted to the crime lab. Variables in Parts 3 and
4 include month and year gun was stolen, gun type, make, and caliber,
and neighborhood of owner's residence. Part 3 contains owner ZIP code,
and Part 4 contains census tract number and neighborhood name. Part 5
contains the date, time, and census tract of 911 calls relating to
shots fired. Part 6 contains the date and census tract of the homicide
incident, drug involvement, gang involvement, weapon, and victim and
offender ages. Data in Part 7 include state, county, and ZIP code of
traced guns, population figures, and counts of crime guns recovered at
various geographic locations (states, counties, and ZIP code) where
the traced guns first originated in sales by a Federal Firearms
Licensee (FFL) to a non-FFL individual.

Response Rates:
Not applicable.

Presence of Common Scales:
None.

Extent of Processing: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of
disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major
statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to
these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

Standardized missing values.

Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.

Version(s)

Original ICPSR Release:2001-04-12

Version History:

2006-03-30 File UG2895.ALL.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.

2006-03-30 File CB2895.ALL.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.

2006-03-30 File UG2895.ALL.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.

2006-03-30 File CB2895.ALL.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.

2006-03-30 File UG2895.ALL.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.

2006-03-30 File CB2895.ALL.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.

2006-03-30 File UG2895.ALL.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.

2006-03-30 File CB2895.ALL.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.

2006-03-30 File UG2895.ALL.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.

2006-03-30 File CB2895.ALL.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.

2005-11-04 On 2005-03-14 new files were added to one
or more datasets. These files included additional setup files as well
as one or more of the following: SAS program, SAS transport, SPSS portable,
and Stata system files. The metadata record was revised 2005-11-04 to
reflect these additions.